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In 2007, Australia began providing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine free to girls 12 to 18 in a school-based program. Now researchers have calculated the effect on the incidence of genital warts in women 15 to 27.

The study, published in the September issue of PLOS One, found that the rate of genital warts in young Australian women decreased by 61 percent, while rates in age and sex groups not covered by the program were unchanged.

The program uses the quadrivalent HPV vaccine that protects against types 16 and 18, the major causes of cervical cancer, and against types 6 and 11, which cause genital warts.

Since 2007, more than 70 percent of Australian girls turning 15 have received all three doses of the vaccine, the authors write. In the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 38 percent of girls 13 to 17 have received all three doses.

“I’m talking as an outsider looking at the American system,” said the lead author, Christopher Harrison, a senior research analyst at the Family Medicine Research Center of the University of Sydney. “But for the vaccine to be effective and get herd immunity, it would be proper for the government to step in and provide the money for it.”